Hi, I just bought my 1st skid steer due to a collapsing retaining wall system @ home that I couldn't afford to farm out. My plans were to use it for snow removal for my and my neighbors property when the job is done, but... The machine, a 2005 440, was parked after a full days work and just "won't wake up". I recently replaced a damaged instrument cluster with a new one, but it has worked fine until now. There is NO power, no dash lights, nothing when I sit on the seat. The battery is fully charged and showing 12.6 volts @ the terminals and 12.6 @ the rear charging lugs. I visually checked the fuses, and placed the defective gauge cluster back in to see if it would light up as it did even when it was bad. The safety switch for the seat was my next guess. Problem is, I did find (and bought) a service manual, but have yet to find an operators manual for the beast. The service manual is obviously not written for someone with limited mechanical experience, and sometimes leaves me frustrated as much as it helps me. It shows where the seat safety is in relation to the wiring, but NOT where it is actually located on the machine. I'm assuming It's mounted under the seat, and that's gonna be a problem... Due to rains that were freezing @ night, I parked the skid steer w/the bucket tilted full forward on the ground to prevent a frozen tub of water. Now my rams are exposed, and worse yet, if I need to tilt the ROPS, to access the switch, I think I'm S.O.L. These machines must occasionally need service when they won,t start; how do the techs get inside without lifting the boom? It's snowing today, & I'm really worried about getting this thing running and into the garage before it gets buried under a few feet of "Wisconsin white". Any help would be appreciated.
